Jemima writes:<\/p>\n
I am a big fan of your blog – I’m not expecting (so this is not at all urgent) but I LOVE baby names. I have lists and lists of my favourites, and I love hearing your take on my favourite names.
I have a LOT of favourite girls names (Penelope, Georgiana, Anneliese, Geneva, Felicity) and a few favourite boys names (Theodore, Felix, Hugo, Gabriel), but my big question is about a boy name I have secretly loved for a while now. The name is Lysander. Is it usable? I read a book as a kid that had a great character called Lysander in it and I loved it. But does it sound too pretentious (Shakespeare)? Does it sound too ‘feminine’? Maybe a poll for readers – if they think Lysander is usable?
I think the nicknames Sander and Sandy are so cute, but I just don’t know if I can saddle a kid with the name Lysander.
I am not opposed to “different” names – I love having an uncommon name (Jemima). What do you think, Swistle?
Thanks so much, <\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt OUGHT to work: it’s similar to Alexander, which is very popular. And 31 new baby boys were named Lysander in 2011, so it’s not completely unused.<\/p>\n
To me it looks and sounds more toward the feminine and fancy end of the boy-name spectrum. It has a Renaissance Fair sound; I’d put it in the same category as names such as Percival, Leopold, and Clarence.<\/p>\n
I think the nickname Sander goes a long way to make the name more usable; I’d worry a little about Sandy, because my experience with that nickname has been limited to girls.<\/p>\n
I like that it’s been around a long time. For unusual names, I vastly prefer the ones with long roots.<\/p>\n
I think for myself, I would prefer to use the feminine form: Lysandra and Alysandra are both pretty, and I think it’s easier for girls to carry fancy\/unusual names. <\/p>\n
Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what we all think of it! And in the comments section we can discuss whether we think it’s usable. [Poll closed; see results below.]<\/p>\n
Poll results for “What do you think of the name Lysander?”<\/b> (412 votes total):<\/p>\n
I love it! I’d want to use it! – 24 votes (6%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 54 votes (13%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 113 votes (27%)
No particular opinion – 17 votes (4%)
Slight dislike – 113 votes (27%)
Strong dislike – 91 votes (22%)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jemima writes: I am a big fan of your blog – I’m not expecting (so this is not at all urgent) but I LOVE baby names. I have lists and lists of my favourites, and I love hearing your take on my favourite names.I have a LOT of favourite girls names (Penelope, Georgiana, Anneliese, Geneva, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-to-consider"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1yl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}